


Honesty in All Things

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Growing Up, M/M, Mentor/Sidekick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-07
Updated: 2008-11-07
Packaged: 2017-10-30 15:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tension reaches the breaking point, but still, it takes Alfred's wisdom to tip things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honesty in All Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



Dick was barely nineteen when it happened. All the trials and tribulations of the misunderstandings between he and Bruce exploded into a fierce argument over dinner. As bad as things had been, it was the first time Dick had lashed out in front of Alfred, and the argument cut both guardian and former ward to the quick, leaving Alfred highly concerned for the future of his family.

Dick stormed out, going to his bike and taking off into the city, leaving Bruce still simmering.

"Is it not about time you face the facts of the way you truly feel for Dick, before you push him entirely out of your life?" Alfred asked, far more blunt than his usual wont. He looked at Bruce, made his own ward truly face the implications with his frank gaze. "One day, if you keep on this path of silence, he will go to New York and remain. And where will that leave you, Master Bruce? I shan't live forever, and you, sir, are no fit company for yourself alone."

"It would be an abuse of my power over him," Bruce growled, looking down because those words felt too true.

"As if using his hero worship of you to train him into the man he is now was not?"

That dragged Bruce's eyes back up in shocked hurt, but Alfred stayed firm.

"Better to give him the choice of knowing what you feel, do you not think, than to leave him with raw hurt and anger festering beneath the facade of teenage rebellion?" Alfred gathered up the dishes. "Mark my words, sir, that young man has had more than enough setbacks to leave him vulnerable to a major fracture of his soul. Do you wish to be the one who applies the chisel, and perhaps, one day, have to see him within Arkham?"

"He'd never break!" Bruce declared, fierce pride in Dick showing strongly.

"Does he know that you believe that?" came the dry, pointed comment.

`~`~`~`~`

Dick slunk back inside, not wanting to wake Alfred, and hoping to avoid Bruce. Maybe he'd been childish tonight. Maybe he had come off like a sulky boy. But, dammit! Bruce needed to get it through his head that he was not going to quit being a hero, no matter how many objections Bruce threw at him!

"Dick."

The young man cursed inwardly. He hadn't caught a glimpse of the Bat all night, so had hoped maybe Bruce had gone to help the League. No such luck.

"Yeah, Bruce?" He pushed his voice down, kept it even, lessons of Bruce's manufacture helping him wrap up his emotions and swallow them down.

"I apologize for tonight, for the night I told you you weren't Robin, for all of my objections to the Titans, to Nightwing."

The ticking of the clocks in the house were the only noise for a long, tense moment. Dick could not believe his ears, and Bruce felt entirely too vulnerable, stripped by the simple act of an apology he knew he never should have created a need for.

"Bruce, I...accept." The issues were there, and only time would prove otherwise, but if Bruce could take that step, Dick had to meet him on the plateau of forgiveness.

"I...realized that the thought of losing you was too large a threat to my ability to perform my duties to Gotham. And instead of counseling myself, instead of facing that fear, I tried to remove the threat to my chosen mission." Bruce walked forward slowly, until he was right in front of Dick, the younger man's eyes having locked on his face. "It was the wrong course, and I hope that we can fix it."

Dick honestly didn't know what to say to such frank, open honesty from the man he revered. It was twisting up inside his guts, alongside that forbidden longing, making him feel both giddy and sick all in one. "Sometimes I get scared too, Bruce. Because I don't know how I'd get through each night if you go out there and get yourself killed. Jason's...not bad. But...I don't trust him yet, not with your life. And I was angry. Robin was mine. You had no right..." Easier to focus on that, easier, Dick thought, to return to anger rather than deal with the butterfly feelings in the pit of his stomach.

"No, I didn't." Bruce reached up, a small gesture made by brushing Dick's unruly hair back from his face, knowing even that small contact was enough to make his pupils dilate just enough to betray other thoughts.

Alfred was right. If Bruce shoved Dick away, he would be alone. And the thought of not having Dick near to him was as frightening as any dream of red on pearls.

Dick, for his part, could no more not push into the light touch than stop breathing. He was watching Bruce, though, and saw that flicker. All those butterflies and the gut twisting stilled in a moment of realization...and yet he could not be the one to push, could not even question it. All he could do was allow his eyes to widen in the shock of revelation, and wait.

Waiting did not take so long, and yet it seemed an eternity before Bruce had closed the full distance, bringing his lips to Dick's in a kiss that was gentle, questioning, and sweet.

Dick answered by pressing into the firm body of his former guardian, his mentor, and the one man Dick had held as an ideal ever since he was thirteen.

A few minutes later they were privately redefining just who they would be from here on.


End file.
